Madison girls basketball wins back-to-back district titles

Saturday

Mar 2, 2013 at 12:00 PM

By David ZinserDaily Telegram Sports Writer

The Madison High School girls basketball team defeated Hillsdale Friday night in the District C championship game, 46-32. The win captures back to back district championships for the Trojans. They now advance to the regional tournament as they will head to Hudson on Tuesday to take on Blissfield.

The defense of the Trojans was stellar once again on the night as Hillsdale struggled to get its offense going.

"Our defense was great tonight, besides the fourth quarter," said Madison head coach Rick McNeil. "I'm very proud of this group, all season long they have worked very hard and we accomplished a major goal of the season tonight."

Besides the Trojan defense, the major deciding factor in the game was the Trojan bench. Madison's bench outscored Hillsdale's bench 23-0 on the night. "Our bench and our balance is one of my favorite things about this team, you never know who will be our leading scorer," said McNeil.

From the start of game, the Trojans were fired up and ready to go. After winning the tip, the offense of the Trojans came out fireing, scoring 10 points in the first part of the first quarter. Madison was doing everything right, playing great defense, forcing turnovers, getting the ball inside for easy buckets and hitting 3-pointers. After the first, Madison took a 12-2 lead and looked like the superior team.

The start of the second looked no different as Madison continued to play great. The first two possessions of the quarter were 3-point makes by Ashley Morris and Brittany Kelly, while the full court press gave Hillsdale all kind of problems. Hillsdale did not hit their first field goal until three minutes into the second quarter and struggled the whole first half to even get a shot up.

After 16 minutes of superior basketball, the Trojans were up 24-8 at the half.

After halftime, the game turned into a dog fight as both teams were being very physical. The atmosphere in the whole gym became quite intense as both student sections continued to chant, talk trash and scream their lungs out.

Despite the intensity of the game rising, Madison continued to build its lead and pull away from Hillsdale as the score read 38-16 after three quarters.

Once the fourth quarter started, out of nowhere, Hillsdale caught fire. Despite Madison continuing its good defense, Hillsdale was tossing in buckets from behind the arc, hitting four 3-pointers within minutes and really getting its offense going.

The hot streak from Hillsdale did not affect the Trojan players though, as they continued to fight hard, get tough baskets and hit their free throws in the clutch.

Hillsdale's 16-point fourth quarter was not enough in the end and Madison pulled off the win, 46-32.

"I'm proud of how the girls handled that hot streak from Hillsdale," said McNeil. "That could have taken a lot of air out of them as they put quite a scare on us, but they handled it well."

Coming off the bench, Morris was the Trojans' high scorer with 14 points to go with her six rebounds. Shayla Villarreal had nine points and two steals while Haley Hudson scored six points and had two steals.

"Were going to enjoy this now and then get back to work here soon. Right now it's that one game at a time mentality, we accomplished one major goal and we'll see what the future holds for us," said McNeil.